Tennessee Basketball: Takeaways from SEC opening win at Ole Miss

It was far from an easy game but Tennessee Basketball was able to get past Ole Miss to open up SEC play. Here are some takeaways from the game.

SEC play tipped off on Wednesday night and one of the favorites to win the league, Tennessee Basketball, opened things up with a tough road win at Ole Miss. The Vols survived a hot shooting first half and displayed why they are the best defensive team in the nation in the second half.

Coming into the game, I had Tennessee as the best team in the SEC. They had an impressive non-conference slate with wins over Butler, USC, and Kansas in The Battle 4 Atlantis and beat a good Maryland team in an absolute rock fight. They also gave Arizona all they could handle in a true road game. It’s always nice to get off on the right foot in conference play to continue the momentum they built here in late December. And the Vols did just that in the most Tennessee way possible: locking down on defense and controlling the glass. Even though some of the offensive struggles still persisted, I saw a ton that should keep Vols fans encouraged that they still have the best team in the SEC.

Defense dominates….again.

Once again, Tennessee’s defense enforced its will on another opponent. Sure, Ole Miss isn’t great offensively and most of the time I can’t even classify them as “good” but Tennessee did what great defensive teams do and shut them down. Per KenPom, the Vols held Ole Miss to 0.89 points per possession, an insanely low number to hold any of your conference opponents to, especially on the road.

When you take into account the hot start Ole Miss had shooting the ball in the first half, it makes what the Vols did in the last 20-minute frame look more impressive. The group in Oxford built a lead in the first half by capitalizing off some rough Tennessee turnovers and making some tough three-pointers, especially from Jaemyn Brakefield and Amaree Abram. Those outside attempts were actually well-defended, and tough shots were being made. It was an unsustainable rate for an Ole Miss team that was shooting below 32% from three coming into the game. So despite giving up 34 first-half points, Tennessee still played well defensively.

In half number two, Ole Miss regressed back to what they are offensively and Tennessee continued to harass them defensively. In that half, it was Ole Miss who struggled to avoid turnovers and Tennessee turned those into 15 points.

The job that UT did on Ole Miss leading scorer Matthew Murrell should also be noted. Murrell came into the game as the only Rebel to average double-digit points (15) and was held to a horrific five points on 1-11 shooting. He was a total non-factor in this game and is a testament to the defensive efforts by the Tennessee backcourt to make sure all of his looks were heavily contested.

The Vols, on the road against a conference opponent, held Ole Miss well below their season average in points per possession. They held them well below their offensive rebound rate. They held them way below their two-point shooting percentage on the season. And most importantly, continued to do so without the assistance of their best on-ball defender in Josiah Jordan-James who dressed out but didn’t record any minutes.

Tennessee controls glass against good offensive rebounding team

The Big Orange came into the game as the number one offensive rebounding team in all of college basketball. Pretty good. If there was anything that Ole Miss could match up well with them at, it’s on the boards. Kermit Davis’ bunch is a top-16 offensive-rebounding team per KenPom and if there is anything they have improved upon from last season, it’s attacking the glass and getting second-chance points.

They didn’t do that in this game. Tennessee won the offensive rebound battle 11-7 and allowed Ole Miss to grab only 20.6% of their missed attempts, which is 16 percentage points lower than what they grab on average. The Volunteers were held only four percentage points below their average as they snagged 34% of their missed shots in Oxford.

When it comes to specific players, Vols reserve big man Jonas Aidoo provided the Vols with more second chances than Khloe gave Tristan Thompson. His six offensive rebounds almost matched the Ole Miss team total and on the defensive end, he collected as many defensive rebounds as the Rebels had offensive (7).

I’m not the only one who has noticed Aidoo’s rebounding and defensive ability. You can tell coach Rick Barnes has too and you can tell by the minutes he gave him in this game. Aidoo only logged about 16 minutes per game going into Wednesday’s tilt and logged almost 30 during this game. Aidoo rebounded his way into additional playing time and could be a bigger part of it moving forward.

Santiago Vescovi finds his shot

It’s been a rough shooting year for Senior Guard Santiago Vescovi. Last year he made a blistering 44.5% of his threes in conference play and is the big reason the team made their run to an SEC Tournament Championship. Up until the Austin Peay win on December 21st, he was making only 29% of his threes in high volume. That’s quite the steep drop-off. The Vols rely heavily on his offensive production at times and if he struggles to make outside shots, the Vols can struggle to score efficiently. He can’t be a sub-30 % three-point shooter if Tennessee wants to repeat as conference champs or has NCAA Tournament aspirations beyond the first weekend.

In the last two games, he’s seemingly found it as he made all five of his triples against Austin Peay and made three of seven against Ole Miss on Wednesday. A solid perimeter shooting performance like that on the road can be a sign that he’s positively regressing back to his average. It’s something to keep an eye on moving forward but for Vols fans, it has to be encouraging to see.

It should also be noted that Vescovi finished much better around the rim and in two-point shots too, making five of his seven attempts. Coming into the game, he was making only 41% of those two-point opportunities. Shooting that efficiently from inside against a team that protects the rim as well as Ole Miss does should bode well moving forward.

Final Takeaway

In conference play, I highly believe there are no such things as “bad wins” especially when you are a team like Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, or Alabama (the contenders). Every team knows your habits and strengths and usually comes out prepared to give you their best shot. Ole Miss did that offensively in the first half and Tennessee’s defense took the game right back.

It wasn’t sexy by any means and some of the sloppiness in the first half had to make Coach Barnes mad enough to black out in anger but they adjusted and came out with a win. Aidoo continues to improve, Vescovi is starting to find his stroke from beyond the arc and once Jordan-James returns to the lineup, they’ll continue to be the toughest out in the SEC this season.